Posts Tagged ‘Tom Brady’

So the Super Bowl actually did turn out to be super. I am wondering how many people turned the game off when the Atlanta Falcons took a 28-3 lead early in the 3rd quarter. Of course as we all know now the New England Patriots scored the final 31 points of the game including the game winning touchdown in overtime to comeback and win the game.

In there comeback Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and running back James White set some new Super Bowl records. Brady set records for most passing attempts with 62. Most pass completions with 42 and most passing yards with 466. White caught more passes than anyone else in a single Super Bowl game with 14. His 110 receiving yards was also the most ever for a running back in a Super Bowl. The Patriots as a team set some new records as well. They had the most first downs with 37, most passing first downs with 26 and most offensive plays in a game with 93. Plus there was the record-setting 19 point fourth quarter comeback and 25 point second half rally. The teams also combined to set three new records. Most 1st downs in a Super Bowl by both teams with 54, most passing 1st downs in a Super Bowl by both teams with 39 and most combined passing yards by both teams with 682. The Patriots now have the most Super Bowl appearances by a team with 9 while Bill Belichick is now the head coach with the most Super Bowl appearances at 7 and wins with 5. Tom Brady now also has the most career passing touchdowns in Super Bowl history with 15.

There where also five records tied in this Super Bowl. Most Super Bowl wins; Tom Brady with 5. Most sacks in a Super Bowl; Grady Jarrett with 3. They started keeping this record in 1982. Most 2-point conversions in a game with 2 and most 2-point conversions by teams combined with 2 and most 1st downs by penalties with 4 by the Patriots.

Now as a whole the NFL playoffs weren’t that great to watch. Did this type of a Super Bowl make up for it? These where the two top offenses in the playoffs and that did show through in this game and that made it fun to watch. There was some talk that this was the greatest Super Bowl of all time. While it was a good game to watch I’m not sure if it’s the greatest Super Bowl ever, but I’d love to know what you thought of the game. Feel free to leave me your comments about the Super Bowl.

With all the complaining LeBron James has done about his team this season you have to wonder if he’s concerned about a NBA Finals rematch with the Golden State Warriors or if he thinks there’s a team in the Eastern Conference that the Cleveland Cavaliers have to worry about. The Cavaliers have a 2 1/2 game lead over the Boston Celtics for the top spot in the Eastern Conference with the Toronto Raptors 4 1/2 games out of 1st place and the Washington Wizards 5 1/2 games behind the Cavaliers.

Now we’ve seen the Raptors take a run at the Cavaliers the last few seasons; so I’m not sure anyone would consider them a challenger in the East.

The Celtics are currently on a 7-game winning streak and they try to make it 8 in a row as they face the Sacramento Kings tonight. The Celtics are led by Isaiah Thomas who is averaging 29.9 points per game and has proven that he is one of if not the top player when the 4th quarter rolls around. Thomas is also the team leader in assists per game with 6.4. Can a team with a point guard as there leading scorer take down the Cavaliers in a 7-game series? Now the Celtics do have some big men who can score and shoot the 3-pointer. Al Horford averages 15.1 points per game and makes 34.1% from behind the 3-point line. Jae Crowder averages 14.2 points per game and shoots a team high 42.2 % from behind the 3-point line. Now the Celtics are a young up and coming team, but are they ready to take that step and take the Cavaliers out in a seven game series. If we get this match up in the playoffs we might get the chance to see where the Celtics stand.

Now how about the Wizards. Remember this is the team that started the season off 5-10 and there was talk of what a disappointing season this was going to be. Washington is now nine games over .500 at 30-21. The Wizards just had there 7-game winning streak snapped on Monday by the Cavaliers. Cleveland won that game 140-135 in overtime, but the Wizards had to get an idea that they could play with the Cavaliers. Is an close overtime loss enough to build confidence in a team that can be up and won at times. I’m sure you’ve heard the reports that John Wall and Bradley Beal don’t always get along. That would be alright as long as they both continue to play well. Wall leads the team in scoring at 23 points per game while Beal is right behind him averaging 22.2 points per game. Wall is also handing out 10.4 assists per game. Both are shooting well from the field. Beal shoots 46.9% from the field and 39.1% from behind the 3-point line. Wall is shooting 45.8% from the field and 31.4% from behind the 3-point line. Otto Porter is shooting a very good 46.7% from behind the 3-point line and Marcin Gortat is grabbing 8.3 rebounds per game. The Wizards are run by there backcourt tandem and the team will go how they go, but they do have some pieces that could help them in a series against the Cavaliers. Could Washington be the team that gives the Cavaliers trouble in a playoff series?

We had a couple more free agents come off the market yesterday. Chris Carter signed with the New York Yankees for one year at $3 million dollars while Mike Napoli agreed to return to the Texas Rangers on a one year $8.5 million dollar deal with a club option. Carter’s deal does have incentives where he can earn an extra $500,000. With pitchers and catchers reporting next week you have to wonder how many more deals will get before then.

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The NFL just wrapped up Week 14; so let’s take a look and see how our picks did. Schaumburg Stu won the week with a record of 13-3. Dan the Man was 2nd at 11-5 with Mr. Fantasy 3rd at 10-6. That of course means I ended up at the bottom with a 9-7 record. Schaumburg Stu has the overall lead with a record of 136-72. We’re running out of weeks to catch Schaumburg Stu, but Dan the Man and Mr. Fantasy now tied for 2nd with an overall record of 128-80. Again I am in the cellar with a record of 119-87. My picks where so bad that my cat went to the bathroom on the notebook page I wrote them down on. With 3 weeks left is there any chance I can get out of last place?

Now last Monday night the NFL match up featured the Baltimore Ravens at the New England Patriots. Now there was a lot of talk about how the #1 rated Baltimore defense would go into New England and shutdown Tom Brady. As we know that didn’t happen. The patriots got out to a 16-0 lead before the Ravens managed a field goal. New England stretched the lead to 23-3 before Baltimore started to make a comeback. Baltimore scored the next 17 points to cut the New England lead to just 23-20. It took Brady and the Patriots just play to make the lead 10 points again as he connected with Chris Hogan on a 79 yard touchdown pass to make it a 30-20 game. Baltimore was able to hit a field goal to make it 30-23, but after Justin Tucker’s onside kick attempt failed the Patriots where able to run out the clock and get the win.

Against the #1 defense Brady was 25 of 38 for 406 yards and 3 touchdowns. Brady was sacked 1 time for -5 yards and also threw an interception. Brady had a quarterback rating of 85.6 in the game and averaged 10.7 yards a pass attempt. The final touchdown pass of the night Brady threw was the 450th of his career. The win was also the 202nd of Brady’s career.

The Patriots improved to 11-2 with the win and are currently on a 4 game winning streak. They have a 3 game lead in the AFC East over the Miami Dolphins. The loss puts the Ravens at 7-6 and knocks then into 2nd place in the AFC North. The Pittsburgh Steelers are the AFC North leaders at 8-5. Baltimore won the first meeting between the two teams on November 6th; so they currently have the tiebreaker. Baltimore travels to Pittsburgh in Week 16 for the second game between these two teams that will probably decide who wins the division.

After losing to the Patriots on Monday night the Ravens decided on Tuesday to release kick returner Devin Hester. Hester’s indecision on a punt early in Monday’s game led to the Ravens giving up a safety. Hester was having a good year returning kickoffs averaging 24.5 yards a return, but has struggled on punt returns where he’s averaging just 7.2 yards a return. Hester is 34 years old and if this is his last game in the NFL you have to ask; is he a Hall of Fame player? Hester is one of if the best return man in the history of the NFL. In his career Hester has 295 kickoff returns averaging 24.9 yards per return and he returned 5 kickoffs for touchdowns. Hester has returned 315 punts in his career averaging 11.7 yards per return and a NFL record 14 punts returned for touchdowns. In 2006 Hester returned the opening kickoff of the Super Bowl for a touchdown. Hester made 4 pro Bowls and was voted First-Team All Pro 3 times in his 11 year career. Hester never really blossomed as a receiver, but he does have 255 career receptions and 16 touchdowns. Hester also has 1 career rushing touchdown. There isn’t a full time returner in the Hall of Fame, but has there ever been a return man who was the type of weapon Hester was? If you had a Hall of Fame vote would you vote for Devin Hester?

On Monday the Los Angeles Dodgers where able to bring there closer Kenley Jansen back with a 5 year $80 million dollar deal. Now it’s being reported that the Dodgers other big free agent 3rd baseman Justin Turner will also be returning to Los Angeles on a 4 year $64 million dollar deal.

It’s being reported that Jansen was offered more money by the Washington Nationals and the Miami Marlins, but took less money to stay with the Dodgers. Jansen has spent his entire 7 year career with the Dodgers and last season became their all time leader in saves. Jansen currently has 189 career saves.

Turner was considered a utility guy until he took over at 3rd base for the Dodgers in 2015. Before locking down the 3rd base job Turner had spent time at 1st base, 2nd base, shortstop and even played some leftfield. Turner had career highs in home runs with 27 and also in RBI’s with 90 last season. Turner also finished 9th in MVP voting last season.

The NBA is going to use the D-League to test four and five person refereeing crews instead of the customary three in an effort to collect data and see if having additional officials involved affects the game. The first game with the extra referees will be December 26th and that will be the first of 9 games to feature extra officials. This isn’t the first time the D-League has been a laboratory of sorts for the NBA. The D-League has been a testing ground in the past for possible rules changes, along with changes in technology and equipment. This season, some of the innovations being brought to the D-League include a coach’s challenge, a reset timeout and a 3-minute overtime period. The experimental crews will have three different configurations. There’s a four-person crew with two officials in lead spots, and two others split between slot and trail positions. Another four-person test will have two officials in the slot, with the others in the trail and lead. And the five-person crew will feature the existing three person system, but with two other officials in stationary lead positions on opposite ends of the court. The NBA went from two-person crews to three-person crews for the 1988-89 season. There’s been talk of larger crews for years, and a four person crew was studied during summer league play at Salt Lake City back in July.

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What if I told you that your superstar quarterback would be suspended for the first four games of the season. I’m sure you’d unhappy. Then as the starting quarterback the #2 guy came in and the team went 2-0 in games that he started. I’m sure you’d be okay with that. Now throw I the #2 quarterback got injured in his second start and would miss the third week of the season. Now you’re favorite team is on to it’s third quarterback in three weeks. Even as a fan you might think that they’ll suffer their first loss of the season in Week 3. Not only did that loss not happen, but they had a dominating performance to go to 3-0 After the game though there was a report that your third sting quarterback has a thumb injury. The injury was to the quarterbacks right hand, but it being reported as “not serious”. Now if this third string quarterback can’t play in Week 4 what would your favorite 3-0 team do under center for Week 4. Is it at al possible that they’d just go ahead and play the starting wide receiver who use to be a college quarterback in that game. Now when you look at this scenario you might find it hard to believe that this team could actual be 3-0 going into Week 4, but this is how the New England Patriots season has went and they are 3-0.

We all know the Tom Brady saga and he’s still going to have to sit out one more game, Jimmy Garoppolo played very well in his first two starts until getting hurt in Week 2 against the Miami Dolphins. That left 3rd round draft pick Jacoby Bissett as the starter for Thursday night game against the Houston Texans. Add in to all this that you’re all world tight end missed the first two games with injuries and while he was on the field at times in Week 3; he was ineffective. I thought against a defense like the Texans that a third string quarterback wouldn’t be able to get a win against them. What do I know. Patriots head coach Bill Bellichick put together a game plan that Brissett executed perfectly as the Patriots cruised to a 27-0 victory over the Texans to start Week 3. I’ll be the first to admit that I picked the Texans to win the game and I did have some company as Schaumburg Stu and Mr. Fantasy also had Houston winning. That means Dan the Man was the only one who picked New England to win and he’ll go into Sunday as the only one of us at 1-0.

Brissett was just 11 for 19 for 103 yards. He was sacked once, but did not throw an interception. Brissett managed the game from the pocket and when he needed to run he did. Brissett ran 8 times for 48 yards and a touchdown. His 27-yard touchdown run was the Patriots first of three rushing touchdowns in the game. LeGarrette Blount handled the majority of the ground game for New England. Blount carried the football 24 times for 105 yards and 2 touchdowns. Julian Edelman wasn’t productive as a receiver, but the Patriots didn’t throw the ball enough for that. He had just 4 catches for 38 yards, but he also ran the football 3 times for 14 yards. James White added 3 carries for 12 yards and Martellus Bennett added a carry for 6 yards to go with his 10 receiving yards on 2 catches. Danny Amendola had 2 receptions for 23 yards while Malcom Mitchell had a catch for 27 yards. Chris Hogan caught 1 pass for 3 yards and White had a catch for 2 yards as Brissett spread the football around.

Now what if Brissett’s injury causes him to miss Week 4. Does Edelman play quarterback like he did in college against the Buffalo Bills. Would you put it pass Bellichick to start a wide receiver at quarterback. He’s had linebackers catch touchdown passes and has played a wide receiver at defensive back. How about a wide receiver at quarterback. New England might as well have some fun with it in Week 4 as Brady will settled the position down after that.

Kevin Garnett announced his retirement after 21 seasons in the NBA. Garnett spent parts of 2 season with the Brooklyn Nets, 6 seasons with the Boston Celtics and 14 seasons with the Minnesota Timberwolves. Garnett won the league MVP for the 2003-04 season. He also won the All-Star game MVP that season. Garnett was drafted by the Timberwolves with the 5th pick in the 1995 draft. The Timberwolves traded Garnett to the Boston Celtics in 2007 for two 1st round draft picks, Ryan Gomes, Gerald Green, Al Jefferson, Theo Ratliff and Sebastian Telfair. Garnett won his only NBA Championship with the Celtics in 2007-08. After six season with Boston Garn along with Paul Pierce, Jason Terry and D.J. White where traded to the Brooklyn Nets for Keith Bogans, MaRshon Brooks, Kris Humphries, Kris Joseph, Gerald Wallace and three 1st round draft picks. A 2014 1st round pick, a 2016 1st round pick and a 2018 1st round pick. Garnett returned to the Timberwolves in February of 2015 when he was traded for Thaddeus Young. Garnett is a 15 time All-Star and has been voted All-League 22 times. Garnett has scored 26,071 points in his career good for 17th in NBA history. He’s 9th in career rebounds with 14662 and he’s 19th in career blocks with 2037. Garnett’s scoring average for his career was 17.8 points per game. It’s safe to say that Garnett is on his way to the Hall of Fame.

It’s race two of The Chase and the Sprint Cup series is at New Hampshire Motor Speedway for the Bad Boy Off Road 3oo. Carl Edwards took the pole with a speed of 135.453 mph. Last weeks winner Martin Truex Jr. will start 2nd with Ryan Newman 3rd, Jimmie Johnson 4th and Denny Hamlin rounding out the Top 5 starting 5th. Remember if a Chase driver wins he automatically moves into the next round like Truex Jr. did last week with his win at Chicagoland Speedway. Will we see a Chase driver advance or will we see someone from out side of The Chase get a win. Maybe Truex Jr. gets his second win in a row and stops someone from moving into Round 2 of The Chase.

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